144 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



unique Octonaria undosa was got here, and the 

 rather scarce Pontocypris Sinithii and BythocypHs 

 concinna also occurred. 



8. Coalbrookdale Railway Cutting, near Coal- 

 brookdale, Shropshire. — This shale is of a fine 

 yellowish colour, and is rich in microzoa. It appears 

 to be several hundred feet under the position of the 

 Wenlock Limestone. When the prepared material 

 is searched under the microscope, one is a little 

 startled to find ntimerous little glassy bodies of 

 the shape of "Prince Rupert's drops," small glass 

 globules, some with gas cavities, and scoriaceous 

 material of a pumice-like nature. I think there can 

 be no doubt that these little bodies have been 

 elaborated in the fire-boxes of the locomotive 

 engines that pass along the railway line here, and 

 after a short career in the air, volcanic-bomb-like, 

 they eventually find a resting-place amongst the 

 decomposing Silurian shale, but their appearance 

 is much too " newfangled-like " to lead them to be 

 mistaken for products of that remote age. Inter- 

 bedded with this shale is a thin band of a peculiar 

 white substance not unlike soap. I have seen an 

 analysis of it given somewhere, but cannot recall at 

 present in what publication. The shale also con- 

 tained some magnetic particles — if similar bodies 

 had not been found in other districts we might 

 have also credited the locomotive with their pro- 

 duction, — some crystalline rounded masses of calcite, 

 and pyrites. Fragments of Trilobites' eyes, showing 

 the inside of the facets, were obtained. Small 

 Brachiopoda were frequent, also " heads " of small 

 Crinoids, Tentaculites, a few small rugose Corals, 

 Polyzoa, some Lingulce, part of a fish-scale, and a 

 bivalve. It may be remarked that bivalves, either 

 large or small, are exceedingly rare in connection 

 with the Wenlock shales. 



Ostracoda, 27 species. The Ostracoda were abun- 

 dant, although the species were not so numerous as 

 in some other localities. BeyHchia lacunata was 



